On Media

Obama fails to boost 'This Week' ratings

By DYLAN BYERS

09/20/2013 12:20 PM EDT

When President Barack Obama sat down with CBS's "Face The Nation" for an exclusive interview on March 29, 2009, he delivered the show it's largest audience in more than four years: 3.7 million total viewers and 1.4 million in the coveted 25-to-54 demo.

When he returned from a three-year Sunday show absence and gave an exclusive to NBC's "Meet The Press" on December 30, 2012, he drew a record 4.21 million viewers (and 1.2 million in the demo).

But when Obama granted an exclusive interview to ABC's "This Week" earlier this month, he drew a paltry 2.69 million viewers. And "This Week" -- which has been making notable gains of late -- finished second in total viewers (to "Face") and third in the demo behind both CBS and NBC.

These three interviews are the only "exclusives" Obama has given to the Sunday shows since becoming president -- he gave interviews to all three networks, plus CNN and Fox News, on Sept. 20, 2009) -- and his most recent performance suggests that public interest in such a booking has diminished.

The White House declined to comment on the ratings.

To be fair, excerpts from Obama's "This Week" interview did make the rounds on other networks and drove a fair chunk of coverage for the following week. In addition, the interview was taped two days ahead of time, and was thus not quite as newsworthy.

Nevertheless, Obama failed to draw the audience any news network would expect to get with a presidential exclusive. Indeed, he failed to move the needle at all -- for "This Week," the Sept. 15 show marked a decline on the previous week in both total viewers and the demo: